Silver And Black Pride
Diving into the second-round pick’s tape
The Las Vegas Raiders were looking to add depth at wide receiver heading into the 2025 NFL Draft and selected TCU’s Jack Bech in the second round with the 58th overall pick of the draft.
Bech’s college career began at LSU, where he spent some time at tight end and that shows up on his tape as physicality is the root of his game. The former Tiger and Horned Frog can out-muscle defensive backs to create separation, has strong hands with only four career drops on 200 catches, and hauled in 21 of 34 contested targets (61.8 percent), according to Pro Football Focus.
With that in mind, let’s get a glimpse at what the wideout can bring to the Raiders’ offense.
Bech checked in at the NFL Combine a little over 6-foot-1 and 214 pounds and then hit 19 reps on the bench press. The latter was the second-most among wide receivers, and he uses his strength well to create separation at the top of routes, which the clip above highlights.
TCU runs a switch release with the slot receiver working wide to run a comeback route while Bech stems inside before breaking on the out route. The inside stem gets the corner’s momentum going toward the middle of the field, and Bech capitalizes by using his hands to take advantage of the size and strength mismatch.
That allows him to get plenty of separation for an easy pitch and catch to move the chains on the 20-yard gain.
Here, we’ll get an example of the wideout’s toughness to make a contested catch for a touchdown.
He runs a slant route against man coverage on the goal line, where the linebackers are the low-hole players to help take away any routes over the middle. While TCU has a good play call for this coverage with the inside slot receiver running a fade route, the cornerback does a good job of avoiding the pick.
So, the corner ends up being in Bech’s hip while the linebacker is waiting in the middle of the field, creating a situation where the wideout has to make a contested catch in traffic while facing pressure from both sides. However, he shows off some strong hands to hold onto the ball and is willing to take a hit to put six points on the board.
These types of grabs are exactly what you’re looking for from a possession receiver.
We’ll take a look at another quality contested catch from the TCU product.
He’s facing press coverage this time and does a solid job of winning at the line of scrimmage by using an outside jab step to create some space on the inside for the slant route. But the cornerback does a good job of staying patient at the line of scrimmage to avoid getting beaten off the line and falling completely out of phase.
As a result, Bech wins on the route but the corner is in a position...
